One more lost soul seeking asylum. Been lurking for a few days, waiting for official word. Since it doesn't look like GG will return and this has become a de facto new home I figured I better sign up. Thanks Knightshade for being so accomodating. So um, where's the fridge?

First off, Thanks CG for welcoming us GG refugees. I guess the disappearance of GG should come as no suprise. It had been almost 3 months since a home page update and nobody connected with the site seemed to have any concrete information, just "were working on it" kind of statements. I am suprised that Rich would let this happen with out any kind of announcement, that is , if this is not a technical glitch, which is becoming more doubtful each day. If it was technical, then you would think someone would know and word would get out. GG had a great run and provided a lot of entertainment for 1000's of people. If this is the end, then thank you to all who helped make GG what it was, the admins, the mods and of course the general population! Heres hoping they can revive the old gal, but if not then then heres hoping the Gone Gold family enjoys their internet life where ever they end up.

Well, I have to weight the amount of time the moderators will have to spend on that forum. It soaks up 10x more time to moderate than any other one as religion and politics tend to bring out the absolute worst in people at times...

I don't know whether you need to worry about that or not. I've decided to move my R&P mumblings to PopeHat in the future (where I have the power to silence my critics ).

And at least according to Derek Smart in that AVault thread that Tals linked us to - I personally am responsible for the degredation of the GoneGold forums into the cesspool they were. Well, he claims that my "ilk" are also to be held culpable.

So if I am not here to ruin your R&P forum like I did to GoneGold, you guys should be free and clear for the open, honest and respectful R&P discussions that I was incapable of participating in, and unable to refrain from poisoning for the past 2 years.

My apologies to the GoneGold refugees. I had no idea, until Derek Smart told me, that I am responsible for GoneGold going off the air.

My apologies to the GoneGold refugees. I had no idea, until Derek Smart told me, that I am responsible for GoneGold going off the air.

Ah, don't worry about it RM9. I'm sure in a day or two the mad doctor will spin a grand yarn about how he personally had GoneGold shut down for banning his egomaniacal ass.

And to the "ilk" comment, I can only say I count myself (and damn near everyone at GoneGold) as part of the ilk. So this member of the GoneGold ilk would like to extend a hearty "Suck It!" to Derek Smart.

posted as Ancient Submariner at GG...but i think i may have caused this to happen as this year i seem to have many things that have been constants in my life suddenly disappear.

My favorite bar that I have been going to since 1986 shutdown suddenly with no warning. 2 old friends suddenly moved away and contact is sparse and now this with GG where I was one of the first 1000...sorry my karma has such profound ramifications for everyone else. :?

The only other thing i can think of is tha perhaps I am not the center of universe....nah.

Stephen spent a lot of time trying to migrate the forum to use the new software. I wonder how he feels about having the plug pulled on him unexpectedly after he spent all those hours on the change-over.

I used to think Derek was pretty cool. I thought that his inflammatory posting style just came from raw nerves and being stalked all the time by people who hated his games. I mean, come on, if you don't like the game don't buy and play the thing.

Every time he posted in Gone Gold, someone threw in a dig. And when it degenerated into a flame war, strangely all these newbies who registered that day would show up to start fighting too. So really, I never really blamed DS for reacting the way he did. That said, it's no real surprise to me that he got the chop. He certainly skirted the rules pretty blatantly.

I personally find it incredibly offensive that DS would shit on GG like that. He doesn't remember that 8 page thread more or less praising UC? The UC question/answer thread? That awesome thread where we posted nothing but gibberish? Come on man, of all the internet bulletin boards... about 90% of the posters there were pretty positive and supportive. And that's WAY more than any other board... with the lonely exception of the 3000AD official boards. I can't wait for him to start calling me "just another DS-hater". If the GG forums were still up, it was pretty clear that I wasn't.

Yikes, you ain't whistlin' Dixie there, fella! That was a pretty hostile and acidic series of posts from DS there. I was in the same camp as you about DS on GG. I felt he was a little hot headed but that people liked to goad him to the point of explosion. But those posts are just way out of line.

...and why is he still signing everything Ph.d? Wasn't it proven that he received a degree from something like the "Hasbro Big Boy University" or something?

Logged

Warning: You will see my penis. -Brian

Just remember: once a user figures out gluten noting them they're allowed to make fun of you. - Ceekay speaking in tongues.

Yikes, you ain't whistlin' Dixie there, fella! That was a pretty hostile and acidic series of posts from DS there. I was in the same camp as you about DS on GG. I felt he was a little hot headed but that people liked to goad him to the point of explosion. But those posts are just way out of line.

...and why is he still signing everything Ph.d? Wasn't it proven that he received a degree from something like the "Hasbro Big Boy University" or something?

Because he's an ass, plain and simple. After years of reading and posting on the GG forums, I've come to realize a couple of things about him: 1.) He has a HUGE ego which demands to be stroked at all times. 2.) His manners on the board led me to believe that he is the type of person who demands to be the center of attention, all the time 3.) If he doesn't get the attention he wants he'll throw one of his little on-line "tantrums" by posting some useless topic of his own or starting a flame-war in someone else's.

Personally, I'm glad he's gone. I will miss the opportunity to constantly heckle him, but I can always jet over to AVault if I want to do some more of that.

Okay, enough of that. I really hope GG isn't gone for good. I've been going to the site just about every day for years and, I was hoping at least, I could continue to do so for as long as I am into gaming.

I also want to say thanks to Ron and the CG staff for picking all of us up. If GG truly is gone and this site is deemed to be it's replacement, I'd like to offer up any help I can to get things up and running.

Here's hoping that site is back up soon, in one form or another. Thanks to everyone keeping us updated. If any of you have any info on how Rich is doing, please let us know. (As if that needed to even be said...) Rich is a great guy and I just hope he's doing okay, GG or not.

Yikes, you ain't whistlin' Dixie there, fella! That was a pretty hostile and acidic series of posts from DS there. I was in the same camp as you about DS on GG. I felt he was a little hot headed but that people liked to goad him to the point of explosion. But those posts are just way out of line.

As I said earlier, Stephen has been contacted. Unfortunately, he's very busy right now. We haven't heard from him yet.

Somehow that sounds familiar...

Don't read too much into things. Stephen warned us ahead of time that he was going to be busy-beyond-reason for a while on a Big Project (TM) not related to the site, and would likely be hard to get ahold of.

I'm pretty sad about the demise of GG. I was finally feeling comfortable over there after 2 and a half years. Someone actually posted a question in my bailiwick, though they never followed through by e-mailing me specific questions (whomever posted that thread on internet businesses, please feel free to get in touch with me if you'd like).

If it never returns, I think that our warm and generous hosts at Console Gold can make me feel as comfortable as those as GG made me feel.

Keep in mind I was/am a relatively newbie GG'er. I think I had been visiting and posting for about 1.5 years. This mean that I pretty much only know Rich by reputation and never got attached to the early stuff.

I've watched a lot of uncertainty with the forums and how they were being handled. There were the monthly threads discussing changing the forum and improvements that were coming and where's Rich and... ....

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Once/if people get settled into a new stable home, we won't have to be worrying about things like the noon crashes or the site vanishing. It can be run by an active person who can keep the community informed and have the power to enact change swiftly when needed. This is not a slam against anyone, it is however wise to have a site run by an active participant imo.

That said, it's no real surprise to me that he got the chop. He certainly skirted the rules pretty blatantly.

Wait, did Derek Smart get "chopped", as in banned, from here? He was never banned from GoneGold as far as I remember--I had to refrain from replying to his asinine posts hundreds of times from the sheer lack of caring, even though I really wanted to flame him something fierce.

I truly hope he's been banned from here, or anywhere, really. Just banned. When I think of Derek Smart, I think of all the portions of my mind that have those DS and Battlecruiser memories stored in them when I could have something meaningful and worthwhile in there like instructions by Martha Stewart on how to carve a pumpkin for Halloween.

The man may very well be a nice guy in person, but on the Internet, he's been nothing more than a waste of space. He is the single most important reason why I'll never even consider purchasing one of his games. It's kinda sad how he puts all the effort he does in trying to defend himself and his games, when in the long run, he just creates a giant rift amongst people which just costs him customers. If he'd just shut the hell up he'd probably see much better sales. Not that any of his games deserve to actually be purchased, but if fewer people had less of an outright hatred for the man, they may, at some point, be tricked into actually making a purchase rather than diligently avoided anything labelled with his name.

I've never seen a "company", seemingly, purposely develop such brand hatred before.